# Cigar Room Plans & Progress



## Thoroughbred

During the past year, I have been working on finishing a couple of rooms in the unfinished basement of our home. Until last fall, it was more piddling than really working but once the weather started turning cold, I decided one of the rooms should be able to also serve as a cigar room. So the research began. This week, the room will be drywalled and finished (which are tasks I had _*no *_interest in completing myself). Next week is painting.

I had a few requirements that I wanted to meet with this cigar room:


The exhaust amount must be no less than half the cubic footage of the cigar room, theoretically replacing room air once every two minutes.
The exhaust fan and make-up air heater must be located outside the cigar room to reduce noise within the room.
The ductwork should have as few turns and transitions as possible to allow for maximum air input and output.
Here are some of the specs for my room:


*Square Footage*: 142
*Cubic Footage*: Approx. 1200
*Surfaces*: 2 Walls-Painted Dryboard, 2 Walls-Sealed & Painted Concrete, Floors-Stained Concrete
Here's the basic floorplan of my room, with ceiling joists and ductwork included. The room includes a 14-inch exhaust grille on the ceiling, which feeds into 8-inch round metal duct that is connected to an inline exhaust fan (Active Air 720 CFM). To reduce noise, the exhaust fan is located well outside the cigar room, near the exterior walls of the house. Make-up air will feed into the house through an inline duct heater (Electro Industries EM-WX0515R). The make-up air actually feeds into the ceiling of the guest room and into wall stack ductwork (between the studs) that feeds into the cigar room near the floor.

And here are the pre-drywall photos:









The interior of the room is ready for drywall.









You can see the 14-inch ceiling box where the exhaust grille will be located. I was not able to place this box in the center of the room because of the limited number of ceiling-joist channels available. However, I did place the make-up air vent on the opposite wall, which I expect to create an airflow across the room that will help clear the smoke.









Looking from the ceiling box along the ductwork to the exterior wall of the house. You can see the exhaust fan at the far side.









A closer view of the fan, which I've framed so I can partially enclose it in plywood to further reduce noise. When complete, I will place a damper in the ductwork between the fan the exterior wall. The fan will be controlled by a variable-speed switch (KB Electronics, 8-amp max).









The opposite wall of the room with the make-up air ductwork and vent (at the bottom of the ductwork).









This photo is taken from the other room, with the cigar room on the other side of the studs. From this angle, you can see the joist channel on the ceiling where the make-up air heater will be located (to the right of the round metal pipe at the top of the ductwork). The air will come in from the exterior, through a damper, into the heater, and then down into the cigar room.

I hope this post will help others who may be considering doing something similar in their own homes. It can be a bit of a challenge finding reliable information on the subject, but there are a few notable sites worth checking out (if you haven't seen them already). Web sites that I used while researching this project include:


*Ryan Deyer's Cigar Room*: Ryan's site has become the standard for people looking for well-researched information, as well as the reasoning behind methods and components used to build this first-rate cigar room.
*Puff Posts*: Where else would you find such a great collection of information. The search feature will locate quite a bit of information and experiences. I repeatedly visited this post: Exhaust Fans
*TV Programs*: Not a lot of substance, but they're worth checking out for the sake of curiosity. Here are a couple of shows you can view online: DIY Network - Cigar Sanctuary, DIY Network - Outdoor Cigar Room
More photos to come as work progresses...


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## sdlaird

Great post. Subscribed to see the finished product. Very professional.


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## RayJax

Very cool!

Thanks for posting, I look forward to following your progress!


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## quincy627

Nice work. I really looks like you are doing this right. Keep us posted.


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## TKE174

Looking good! For safety reasons add a heat detector into the room and have it added to your houses existing smoke alarm system. Keep up the good work


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## Thoroughbred

Thanks everyone. That's great advice about the detector. I actually wired for a smoke/carbon monoxide detector but didn't know how to keep it from alarming when the room is in use. I wasn't familiar with _heat_ detectors, which sounds like an ideal solution.

The drywall is up and the wall finishing begins today. I cleaned all the drywall dust last night to prepare for finishing, looked like a ghost when I was done... : )

I still have access to the area above the door for a heat detector.


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## piperdown

Looking good!

The supply and exhaust locations are actualy good the way they are. You do want that sweeping air motion as it assists with removing contaminates. I've specd out quite a few lab spaces, paint shop storage rooms and some clean rooms over my career and that's a good design.


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## quincy627

Great idea with the heat detector, just be ready to drop some coin for a reliable one.


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## CraigCorb

Awesome, I dream of having a cigar room! Looking forward to seeing the progress updates!


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## Thoroughbred

It's time for an update on my cigar room progress. The drywall and painting are done. I've also hung the lights, and I'm now in the process of re-doing the wiring. This room was originally going to be just an office, and when I decided it should also serve as a cigar room, it became necessary to wire for the additional components (exhaust fan, make-up air heater, and dampers). Here's the current status of the room. I decided to forego cleaning it before taking photos. : )









You can see the exhaust grille on the ceiling, as well as the ceiling fan and wall sconces.









Another angle where you can see the wall register that will feed the make-up air.


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## nfusion770

Looking good Scott. It won't be long and you'll be puffing away in your 150sq ft sanctuary.


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## Jay_Rich

Awesome! I couldnt imagine convincing my wife into building a cigar room! I wish

Very nice work BTW


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## Thoroughbred

Thanks guys. Luckily, construction of the cigar room coincided with me finishing these rooms anyway. Might as well throw in a few extra features, right?

I've got some mildly bad news though. While getting ready for the drywall, I realized there's some plumbing that needs to be done inside the wall with the sconces. The other side of this wall will remain unfinished until the plumbing is done. I have no ability or interest in doing the plumbing so it'll be a hired job that will inevitably push my completion date back. I'm incredibly slow anyway, but this will stretch the process even further. Not a big deal, just the usual annoyances.


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## Mark THS

Glad to see that our original project could be helpful to yours. Can't wait to see the finished product-


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## shakinghorizons

That room looks awesome!! I'll have to keep that in mind when it comes time to finish the basement!


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## jco3rd

What a cool set up. Blows my garage sitting room out of the water!


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## Thoroughbred

Thanks everyone. Mark, your project was very helpful, thank you.

An update just isn't the same without photos, but there's not a whole lot more to show at this point. Now that spring is here, I won't be able to spend as much time working on the rooms. In fact, I won't likely finish the room until later this fall, which should be fine now that winter has passed.

I'll cover a few minor details that have come up in the past few weeks:

-*Illuminated Switch for Make-Up-Air Heater*: The heater actually has a high-temp-shutoff safety feature, but I still wanted a reminder in case I left the switch on. I used the Leviton 1201-PLC (Illuminated ON).

-*Exhaust Fan Noise*: At full speed, there's more noise in the room than I had anticipated (as well as noise upstairs). To reduce the noise upstairs (which is mainly caused by the joists vibrating), I will use felt pads as damping mounts so the wooden frame doesn't transfer as much vibration. I also expect this to reduce at least some noise that carries to the cigar room, but I haven't determined what's causing most of that noise. There will be different solutions depending on the specific causes.

-*Switch/Outlet Sealers*: Sealing electrical switches and outlets helps provide a barrier between cigar-room air and the rest of the house. A tighter seal means a more effective exhaust system, a more efficient make-up air system, and less room for potential complaints about smoke in the house.

Stay tuned. My updates will probably be less frequent for a while, but I'll post them as I make progress.


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## CarnivorousPelican

Thoroughbred said:


> Thanks everyone. Mark, your project was very helpful, thank you.
> 
> An update just isn't the same without photos, but there's not a whole lot more to show at this point. Now that spring is here, I won't be able to spend as much time working on the rooms. In fact, I won't likely finish the room until later this fall, which should be fine now that winter has passed.
> 
> I'll cover a few minor details that have come up in the past few weeks:
> 
> -*Illuminated Switch for Make-Up-Air Heater*: The heater actually has a high-temp-shutoff safety feature, but I still wanted a reminder in case I left the switch on. I used the Leviton 1201-PLC (Illuminated ON).
> 
> -*Exhaust Fan Noise*: At full speed, there's more noise in the room than I had anticipated (as well as noise upstairs). To reduce the noise upstairs (which is mainly caused by the joists vibrating), I will use felt pads as damping mounts so the wooden frame doesn't transfer as much vibration. I also expect this to reduce at least some noise that carries to the cigar room, but I haven't determined what's causing most of that noise. There will be different solutions depending on the specific causes.
> 
> -*Switch/Outlet Sealers*: Sealing electrical switches and outlets helps provide a barrier between cigar-room air and the rest of the house. A tighter seal means a more effective exhaust system, a more efficient make-up air system, and less room for potential complaints about smoke in the house.
> 
> Stay tuned. My updates will probably be less frequent for a while, but I'll post them as I make progress.


I have seen guys make a muffler for the centrifugal fans and put the fan into a box setup and suspend the box..  I am curious to see how you will deal with the sound going down the duct and the vibration of the fan...


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## Harley3381

That looks like it will be a great little room! Would love to see the finished product.


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## Hubby

Awesome job so far brother! Looking real nice.. Thanks for keeping us updated and sharing your Cigar Room with us!


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## Thoroughbred

Thank you for your comments. I'll post more updates as I make progress (which is not happening during these nice summer months). Noise reduction will be my first order of business when I get back to the room. I'm hoping a combination of felt pads (to dampen the vibration transferred to the frame and joists) and some type of duct muffler will do the trick. I believe the transferred vibration will be the trickiest problem to solve, but I'll get it.


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## Thoroughbred

It's time for another update. I've been working on the cigar room for the past few weeks. Actually, most of my work has been in the room next door, which houses the fresh-air intake system (shown below). I tested the system yesterday after hooking up the wiring for the duct heater, and everything worked as advertised. I have the heater set to turn on if the duct temperature (about two feet downstream from the heater) drops below 76 degrees.



















More updates to come...


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## NasierK

:jaw: Here I am putting on an extra sweater to go outside to have a smoke.

Can't wait to see it when it's done. Looking really good so far!


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## smitty8202

Looking forward to seeing the final product. looks good so far


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## TonyBrooklyn

Looks nice best of luck!


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## Gerace716

That is awesome!! I want something like this one day! I built mine in the garage but this looks great.


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## jusphil85

Wow. Looking really good so far! Excited to see the finished product.


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